Hi Guys,
Im facing the exact same issue in my application. xp_read_file returns null incase of a Network path. My application is huge and we can not run service as another user or workarounds given above. Do we have any solution to this problem in Sybase 12 driver version or a better work around please?
regards,
Wasim

There is no "solution to this problem in Sybase 12 driver version", because it's about restrictions of the operating system and how to work with (or around) them. If the SA service runs under an account without network access and you can't modify that, then xp_read_file won't do it. Your application may handle that by copying the file to a location on the server, where the engine has access to, or you change the application to open it directly.